The advantages and disadvantages of being you: privilege vs oppression

Everyone has disadvantages and advantages in their lives based on aspects of who they are. Some disadvantages will override the advantages greatly and some advantages override the disadvantages greatly but just because a person may have advantages in their lives – doesn’t invalidate or negate the disadvantages in their lives. We should be able to discuss our disadvantages while remembering the advantages we still have so we don’t step over or render over peoples disadvantages invisible in an effort to make ours seem like the only one in existence. If you are a person who had disadvantages the affect your life greatly – I hope you have a great support system and friends and family who have your back.

Just because you are white – doesn’t mean you don’t have disadvantages. It just means you won’t be disadvantaged in a white dominated country simply because you are white. You will have advantages over people because you are white in a white dominated country. You may have disadvantages in other aspects of your life such as , sexuality, gender identity, ethnicity, religion or socioeconomic status and others not listed.

Just because you are gay doesn’t mean you won’t have advantages. It means you’ll have advantages in other aspects of your life. You may have disadvantages in certain regions because you are gay but you will have advantages if you are white or cisgender or rich or country. You may have advantages based on skin color, gender identity, ethnicity, religion or socioeconomic status and others not listed.

If you are a man, you will have advantages if you are white or cisgender or heterosexual and based on the fact you are a man in a male dominate culture. You will have disadvantages based on skin color, sexuality, gender identity, ethnicity, religion or socioeconomic status and others not listed.

Just because you are cisgender, doesn’t mean you won’t have disadvantages. It just means you won’t be disadvantaged because of fact you are cisgender. You do have the advantage of being a cisgender person in a cisgender dominated society. You may have disadvantages in other aspects of your life such as social economic status, sexuality or gender identity or country. You may advantages based on skin color, sexuality, ethnicity, religion or socioeconomic status and others not listed.

If you are a transgendered or non-cisgender person, you will have disadvantages in a cisgender dominate society based on not being cisgender. You may have advantages based skin color, sexuality, ethnicity, country, religion or socioeconomic status and others not listed.

Just because you are a woman, doesn’t mean you won’t have advantages. It means you may be disadvantaged in some aspects of your life based on being a woman. You will however have more advantages if you are white in a white dominated county or if you are a cisgender or heterosexual woman or if you are rich.

Just because you are heterosexual doesn’t mean that you won’t have disadvantages. It just means that you will have advantages over non-heterosexual people if you live in a society that is heterosexual dominate. You will have advantages over non-cisgender people, if you are a cisgender heterosexual person but if you are a non-white person – you will face disadvantages based on being non-white but not by being heterosexual. You may have disadvantages in other aspects of your life such as social economic status, gender identity or country.

If you are extremely rich – you may have very little disadvantages based on the amount of money you have but you may be disadvantaged in other aspects of your life such as skin color sexuality or gender identity or country.

If you are poor, you will have disadvantages based on the amount of money you have but you will have less disadvantages based on other aspect of yourself such as skin color, sexuality, religious affiliation or gender identity especially if you are white, heterosexual and cisgender.

If you are religious, you may have disadvantages depending on your location – especially if your religion is not the same majority religion of the country of your residence. However if your religion matches the religious majority of your country of residence, you will not be disadvantaged or oppressed based on your religion. You may face disadvantages based on other aspects of your life such as skin color, sexuality or gender identity.

If you have an invisible illness, you may have more advantages over someone with a physical illness – until you disclose you invisible illness especially in a society that doesn’t accept that invisible illnesses actually exist. You will have advantages if you are a white or cisgender or heterosexual person but not based on your invisible illness but because you are white or cisgender or heterosexual in a culture that is white or cisgender or heterosexual dominate.

Disadvantages and advantages may include: skin color, sexuality, gender identity, ethnicity, religion, country of residence and the legal protections of that country or socioeconomic status, the health-care of your country or the education system.

Remember: Some of us are more privileged and some of us are more oppressed than others but for those of use who have more privilege than oppression – don’t step over those who have more oppression than privilege.

If you like some of the things I say – feel free to add me to your RSS feed, comment or email me: rayne@insufferableintolerance.com. I now have a facebook page! Feel free to like my page by clicking here!

8 Responses to The advantages and disadvantages of being you: privilege vs oppression

“Some of us are more privileged and some of us are more oppressed than others but for those of use who have more privilege than oppression”

How are we suppose to measure this, is it going to be a points system? How are we to decide who is more privileged or oppressed – what if there is disagreement, is there going to be a final authority to appeal to?

The problem is this oppressed/privileged concept is ideological. That’s why you end up with the “more oppressed than thou” or the “Oppression Olympics” mentality. Everyone jumps on board who has an axe to grind or is looking for an opportunity.

Haven’t got time to go into the Marxist/Neo Marxist/PoMo/Deconstructionist/Feminist/Identity Politics ideology underpinning this issue.

Briefly the whole “progressive” thing is looking more and more like a quasi religion or cult. Take those privilege lists – each “privilege” is like a Christian sin, the sinner ( oppressor ) must confess these sins and repent. They must struggle forever with their sinful ( privileged ) state.

We can’t measure it- it’s more about remembering that while our disadvantages can weigh us down, we may have advantages as well. I find it a good way to stop incidences of the ever annoying “Oppression Olympics”, you know “You have it better than me, I’m so oppressed. You can’t really have anything legit horrible happen to you because you have privilege”. That annoying shit.

I wrote it more to stop the incidences of the above happening. It’s as shit as saying “You can’t be happy because someone on the planet might be sad” or “You can’t have money problems, you’re white and middle class”.

On the whole “sin” comparison – I agree. Should we feel guilt or shame for having some advantages? No. Should we apologise? No. Should we recognise our advantages? Yes. Should we advocate for more of an equal system, so everyone has the same opportunities? That would be cool. Should we used those advantages to create better opportunities for ourselves and the people around us? Yes.

Yeah I agree with you mostly there. But then why do we need to bother with the whole “privilege” exercise which to me seems obviously nothing to do with fairness or justice and everything to do with ideological and personal agendas.

I’m gay, and guess what? I don’t go around all day looking at all the straight people thinking “poor me! I’m so underprivileged! Look at them all walking so smug and confident in their privilege, they need to check their privilege!”

At the gym I have slowly become friends with a straight guy, he is just a great person to be around. I would never start preaching to him about his supposed “privileges”, and if some social justice warrior type walked up and started haranguing him about”checking your privilege”, I would tell them to F@#@ OFF!

I agree! It’s like radical feminists who believe that just because transmen have male privilege – which many if them don’t, considering that you have to be accepted as male for that to happen – their issues as transgendered people don’t matter.

I also agree that privilege, and having privilege, is not evil. Everyone strives for privilege. That’s the purpose of social justice. It’s only when people use their privilege negatively or refuse to give others privilege that it becomes a problem.